Merulaxis stresemanni

Stresemann's Bristlefront

Listed as Critically Endangered, the Stresemann’s Bristlefront is endemic to a tiny range within eastern Brazil. Long known only from the state of Bahia, it was first collected in the 1830s before disappearing from the ornithological ‘radar’ until the middle of the 20th century, when a second specimen was taken, in the same state. But it then immediately slipped from view again, this time for 50 years, until a bird was photographed and tape-recorded in coastal Bahia in the late 1990s. Subsequent searches of the same site failed to relocate the species, and the Stresemann’s Bristlefront was only finally and conclusively ‘resurrected’ in the early years of the present century, when a small population was discovered in northeast Minas Gerais that is now the subject of ongoing conservation efforts. The song of the Stresemann’s Bristlefront differs reasonably markedly from its sister-species, the more southerly ranging Slaty Bristlefront (Merulaxis ater), but the two species’ plumages are generally similar.

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